- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! It’s heating up in the Indian city
of Bangalore, which is ironic because it’s an ongoing water dispute that’s
inflaming tensions in town. Riots have sprung up over a water sharing deal
between the Indian states of Karnataka and neighboring Tamil Nadu and while
police have been working to restore calm, two men have already died in the
chaos. Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to protesters to exercise
restraint and follow the law and the deployment of a heavy paramilitary
presence has temporarily restored a semblance of order, but this is far from
over. One of the dead was shot by police, while the second died in hospital
following injuries sustained from a fall while fleeing police. This has been
waiting to boil over since a Sept. 5
Supreme Court ruling which ordered the state to release 15,000 cubic
feet of water per second per day from its reservoirs to relieve
drought-stricken farmers in Tamil Nadu. Those taking to Karnataka's streets
don’t seem to see the value in sharing their liquid gold with those in need who
are striving to provide food for others. Millions of farmers in both states
rely on water from the Cauvery River. The river originates in Karnataka and
flows into Tamil Nadu before feeding into the Bay of Bengal and as the monsoon
rains wind down in southern India in September, drinking water is in short
supply. Farmers also have a hard time getting enough water to irrigate their
fields and right now, Tamil Nadu claims it is not receiving enough water and
blames Karnataka for holding it in its reservoirs. In return, Karnataka claims
Tamil Nadu is asking for more than it actually needs. During this week’s riots,
the angry mob in Bangalore shouted, "Cauvery belongs to Karnataka.” Maybe
everyone needs to just grab a nice, cool bottle of Dasani and, um, never
mind………
- Metallica: The Frank Ocean of the metal world? Ocean
tortured fans for four years with promises of a new album that was done, then
not done, then ready but not ready, only to release a visual album to fulfill
his obligations to his record label and then immediately turn around and
release his actual album independently to rave reviews and major profits.
Metallica, on the other hand, is an iconic metal band that has been promising a
new album for a while now, specifically eight years, and whose new album is due
out Nov. 18. However, lead singer James Hetfield now says the band haven't fully
finished the project just yet. Sure, release day is nine weeks away, but if an
album isn't right, then it isn't right, eh James? “There’s always something:
‘Ah, this is a little too long-winded. Let’s cut this out. Let’s make this a
little more potent,” Hetfield said. “We’re craftsmen, and we want to make this
as sharp and potent as possible. So all the way up to the last minute, even the
running order, there’s always something we’re thinking about and trying to make
it the best.” It sounds like the music is done, but being artists, these guys
will be tinkering and tweaking right up to the very end. The projected, “Hardwired….To
Self Destruct,” does have a first single, “Hardwired,” and Hetfield said it’s
one of the shortest songs on the album. “We’ve been known to have long songs,
and there are a few of those,” he added. Just make sure the songs, whatever
their length, are ready in mid-November,
J……….
- There are many reasons to be leery of people who boldly
support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Them going overboard on yard
signs promoting their Candy Corn Come to Life candidate isn't high on the list.
That’s what makes the saga of Haverhill, Massachusetts resident Rick Early and
his many, many Trump signs so sad. Early is facing stiff fines for having too
many signs in his front yard and city officials are demanding that he pare down
his collection. “He’s way in excess of what’s allowed, that’s all he’s been
cited for is that he’s over the signage that’s allowed by city ordinance,” city
building inspector Dick Osborne said. Early started putting up his signs in
January, proving that he’s been naïve, clueless and politically stupid for more
than eight months, but he’s not backing down. “This is my property, and I have
a constitutional right to express my opinions,” Early said. “They’re not coming
down.” The city’s case is built on an ordinance prohibiting political signs
that total more than 32 square feet. The sum total of Early’s signs promoting
arguably the worst non-Hilary Clinton presidential candidate in American
history is more than 300 square feet and he’s citing his First Amendment rights
in defending his cause. “It’s free speech. Maybe I’m offending the Hillary
supporters, but that’s OK. They have their own property, I have my own
property,” Early added, saying he’s willing to go to court if necessary. He
believes that an original state like Massachusetts should understand
Constitutional rights and in a town where another resident has covered his
business in anti-Clinton signs, including a three-dimensional jail cell with a
life-sized Hillary doll clad in an orange inmate uniform inside it, city
officials may have a lot of these fights on their hands……….
- Only in professional sports can a man who just signed a
two-year contract for $5.5 million feel insulted by the job search process. Dallas
Cowboys running back Alfred Morris is a pretty thoughtful guy and one who
continues to drive a 20-year-old sedan every day to work even though he makes
seven figures a year. But when it comes to his departure from the Washington
Redskins this past offseason, Morris is chafed. Morris burst onto the scene,
rushing for a club-record 1,613 yards as a rookie in 2012, but his numbers
steadily declined to 751 last year. The Redskins didn't make a strong attempt
to re-sign him and when free agency hit, the interest wasn’t as high as the
veteran running back expected it to be.
"By the end of the year, I figured my time there was gone,"
Morris said of Washington. "The
free-agency process was very insulting, to just say the least. I didn't like it
one bit. I don't want to do it again." he ended up inking a two-year deal
worth up to $5.5 million with the Dallas Cowboys to back up rookie first-round
pick Ezekiel Elliott and says that the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos spoke
with him early in free agency, but he was told they had bigger priorities than signing
a running back. They spent their money elsewhere and Morris took his
3.7-yards-per-carry average from last season to Texas. "I can't cry over
spilled milk. I just had to go buy me another gallon,” Morris said. "It
was a crazy experience and just due to last season and everybody saying my
production went down, a lot of people threw shots at me and tried to say, 'Hey,
he just wasn't good.’” The fact remains that running backs are an increasingly
devalued, fungible commodity in the NFL these days, so this isn't all about
Morris. Still, it reinforces the fact that in professional sports, it’s a
different world………
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